Pottstown business leader to head Allentown's improvement authority

Steve Bamford will be the third ANIZDA executive director this year. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO / THE MORNING CALL)

A flood of new development in Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone has brought office buildings, apartment complexes and shops, but the 130-acre zone has yet to hook its first big tenant from out-of-state.

Making that happen will soon be the job of Steve Bamford, a Pottstown business leader and former Allentown economic development official who has been named the new executive director of the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority, the board announced Tuesday.

Advertisement

Bamford will be the third ANIZDA executive director this year, and his arrival comes at a turbulent time as the authority that has shepherded $1 billion of new and proposed development works to separate itself from Allentown's embattled City Hall.

ANIZDA board members say it also comes at an opportune time, as they expand the authority's focus on reviewing new development projects to also include recruiting new tenants and developers from outside the Lehigh Valley.

Approval of the next ANIZDA executive director is on the authority's Wednesday meeting agenda. Authority Chairman Sy Traub discussed the kind of executive director the board was looking for.

"We all saw this as an opportunity to find someone who is skilled, not only at operating the authority, but also at recruitment and retention," Traub said. "We're very pleased with who we're getting."

Bamford, 52, did not return requests for comment this week.

He has been executive director of Pottstown Area Industrial Development Inc. since 2011 but has roots in Allentown, according to the biography on his LinkedIn page. From 1997 to 2002, he was executive director of the Allentown Commercial and Industrial Authority and vice president of operations for Allentown Economic Development Corp., an organization whose board Traub has chaired for 20 years.

While Bamford was in Allentown, he was among city leaders heading an effort to build a hockey arena on the site of the former Hess's department store, but that project fell apart before the arena could be built.

In between those public jobs, he spent seven years as a senior manager at the global accounting and professional services firm Ernst & Young in Philadelphia, and running his own advertising and public relations firm, TCB Marketing. He had previous economic development stints in Wilmington, Del., and Reading.

The mix of private and public roles, and particularly a resume that lists his primary role in Pottstown as business recruitment, are likely what attracted ANIZDA board members to Bamford.

While new NIZ development remains brisk — two upscale apartment complexes and an office building are under construction downtown — Bamford will be taking the reins of an authority very much in transition.

For ANIZDA's first four years, Sara Hailstone, the city's longtime executive director of community and economic development, doubled as executive director for the authority. When her resignation took effect in January, city Planning Director Shannon Calluori took over as interim director.

But with an FBI investigation into city contracts and campaign contributions sweeping through City Hall since July 2015, NIZ legislation author Sen. Pat Browne, in June, wrote a clause into the law requiring that ANIZDA be independent of the city.

It's forced ANIZDA to jettison its city-employed staff, and since August its all-volunteer board has been searching for an executive director and new office. The authority has inked a deal to take an office in the America on Wheels Museum as early as January, and that's where Bamford will work.

"It was forced on us by Sen. Browne, but having our own executive director is the right move," said Robert Lovett, ANIZDA vice chairman. "We all want someone who can make sure the books are kept properly and be aggressive in marketing the zone across the state and beyond. We're all confident we're getting that."

Advertisement

Once on board, the new executive director will help hire an executive assistant, Traub said.

The executive director's base salary will be $135,000, according to the 2017 budget due to be approved at the Wednesday meeting, said ANIZDA solicitor Jerome Frank.

When he arrives, Bamford will be stepping into the middle of a public feud between Allentown City Council and Mayor Ed Pawlowski. While ANIZDA is now independent of the city, projects in the NIZ still have to go through Allentown's Department of Community and Economic Development. That department is now without leadership. Hailstone has not been replaced, Calluori resigned last week, the business development manager position remains vacant and several staff members have resigned in recent weeks.

Making matters worse, council removed the funding for those two leadership positions in the 2017 budget.

"It's a mess. Council and Pawlowski need to have a peace treaty," Lovett said. "It's not good for the city, but we're hopeful this can be resolved soon. All we can do is keep moving forward. That's what we're doing."

•Current job: Executive director of Pottstown Area Industrial Development

•Experience: Ernst & Young senior manager, Allentown Commercial Industrial Development Authority executive director, Allentown Economic Development Corp. vice president of operations, New Castle County, Del., vice president of special projects, Reading economic development specialist.